ok I promise that after this one things will start getting lighter, it just happened that all the darker topics (or not dark topics that I just decided to make dark) were bunched up near the start of the week

I really wish we'd gotten to see more tema/saku interaction in canon, they'd make great (girl)friends!

hope you enjoy!

Day 4 - The Torments of War

Tremors still rocked the ground every few minutes, she could feel them shuddering up her legs, even when relatively far from the battlefield itself.

Every time she felt one, she wondered how many had just died in the blast.

"Raise your arm," the warm voice behind her commanded. Despite the jagged pain slicing across her shoulders and down her arms and even up her neck, she complied, teeth clenched, hidden behind her poker face. "Ok, try and it hold still for just a minute."

A blessedly cool hand pressed firmly to her shoulder blade, at first sending a fresh flare of agony through torn muscle and ligament, before gentle waves of thrumming energy swept across her entire upper body, stealing away the pain as it went. She allowed a tiny sigh of relief, but kept her arm held out stiffly, until the comforting hand was pulled away from her skin.

Sakura's movements were minimal and efficient as she circled around the camp-bed, her bright eyes narrowed in concentration as she pressed one hand just above her patient's breast, the other absently helping to keep her arm held aloft.

She might've made a fuss at the perceived slight, but honestly she was hurting and frustrated and so, so tired, so she held her tongue and just focused on the feeling of her muscles realigning at the girl's touch.

It was better to focus on her surroundings; the low mummering voices filling the cramped tent, but with everyone's' voices so hushed, that it was barely intelligible to her keen ears, the constant, gentle humming of medical ninjutsu being performed by at least ten doctors at any one time, the flapping of the entrance as people limped in and hurried out, muffled sobbing leaking from under sheets and always, always, the battle raging only a few miles away.

"Almost done," Sakura muttered, her fingers digging in harder for a brief, awful moment, before finally pulling away carefully, shaking out her hands as she stepped back. "There, try a few gentle motions and stretches."

Only slightly wary, Temari lowered her arm, before raising it back, slowly pushing it further up to point directly at the roof of the dingy tent, then straight in front, then behind, before finishing by circling her shoulders a few times, her arms dropping back into her lap. The raised eyebrow was enough of a question. "Nothing to report," she said, voice sharp and to-the-point; the longer the war went on, the harder it was becoming to remember that there was any other way of speaking.

Sakura nodded, but still took hold of her arm and started carefully bending and twisting it for her. "You're sure? No stiffness or discomfort at all?"

"I wouldn't jeopardise my squad's strength by letting myself go back in-field at anything less than peak health," she said simply, though she humoured the younger girl's examination – she knew exactly what kind of idiotic stunts green recruits could pull, she wasn't going to begrudge Sakura her assurances, even though she felt them entirely unnecessary.

Another quake rocked the flimsy bed she was sitting on, the distant roar thundering through the tent like a great tsunami, before continuing on its path, leaving dreadful silence in its wake.

She let out a controlled breath.

That was a big one, and more powerful than anyone in her regiment should be capable of – perhaps the two Kage in the area, but they'd both left the battle a little before she did, taking the short moment of calm and reduction in the enemy forces, to rest and regain some of their strength.

Hopefully, news of her injury wouldn't have reached Gaara yet; he'd only start worrying, possibly attempt to shield her from further battle, in his own subtle, unaware way. She couldn't have that, even with his inhuman chakra levels, he'd been pushing himself too much, refusing to stop as long as he could still move. He needed to rest, knowing that his sister had everything covered, she'd be back out there soon and, until then, Shikamaru could handle things.

But, she should be out there right now and she would've been, had she not had her arm nearly wrenched off, trying to protect a young Kumo-nin from a plummeting boulder.

The impact had put a nasty dent in her old battle fan and left her unable to breathe for the terrible fifteen minutes it took Shikamaru to stop flapping and get her on a stretcher back behind their front lines. Her entire upper body had been badly damaged – muscles ripped out of position, bones cracked, ribs pressing worryingly into her lungs – really, it was a miracle that Sakura had patched her up so swiftly; a matter of hours, rather than the days it should have taken.

After a few more seconds of prodding the medic pulled her life-giving hands away. "Alright, you're physically well enough to go back out there, but I still think you should stay back for a little while longer, at least until your chakra has restored."

She frowned, reaching to grab the baggy shirt that had at some point replaced the one she'd been stripped of upon entering – probably wise, given how much she'd been bleeding, but she hoped it hadn't simply been discarded, there were still uses for such things. She hummed, as the heavy, rough material dropped over her body, "Only, physically well enough?"

Sakura – only now letting the exhaustion show on her face, looking far older than her years – spoke with a voice heavy and dull, "Yes. Mentally? Not so much."

"You're a psychologist too now?"

Rubbing a hand across her eyes, she slumped down in the small space next to Temari. "No, but I've seen enough injuries by now, to know a reckless act when I see one," she said, not with judgement, but with an empty acceptance, "look, I'm not going to tell you not to fight, I know that's not an option, but you are an important part of your division, you hold too much responsibility to throw it away for one person."

She listened with an open mind, but her hands were still fixing the clasps on her flak jacket with instinctual movements. "Part of my role is to protect those under me."

"Not at the cost of your own life. Yes, if you can save someone, then you absolutely should, but right now we need ninja like you, strategists, leaders, more than we need common soldiers, your skills aren't easily replaced." The girl, no, that was unfair, she was a woman now – they all were – was right, but still…

The face of a boy – young, scared, messy hair falling in front of his dark eyes, hands raised uselessly in front of him – flashed across her eyes.

"You probably didn't notice," Sakura said, leaning over to grab the headband folded neatly next to the cot, "but the one you saved came back with you, to make sure you got here safely, he was in tears the whole time."

"Ah."

She still held Temari's headband in her lap, thumbs running idly over the cold, chipped metal. "It's funny; when I first saw him, I swore it was Kankuro rushing in here, begging me to save his big sister."

"Hm."

Sighing, she relented and offered the blond her property back.

"Look just… be careful, please? I don't want to be the one who has to tell them."

It took her a long few moments to take it, but she tied it tightly over her brow with the same determination she used to face down an enemy. "Yeah," she said, pushing herself to slightly unsteady feet, rocking for a brief second, before stepping forwards. She stopped at the open flap of the tent, turning back to stare down at the woman sitting on a rickety camp-bed, looking far too small, hunched up as she was. "…You take care too, alright?"